Play Ball! Athletics > The Boys of Spring Training + A Female Sports Reporter

Once Upon A Time Long Ago  . . .  isn't that how some great fiction and high-imagination stories used to start?-  in a place called Rendezvous Park in downtown Mesa there were  what's now called "neighborhood recreation facilities" -  a swimming pool and a baseball field. While that land was "cleared" to build the City-owned Mesa Amphitheater and Mesa Convention Center and the adjacent Phoenix-Mesa Marriott Hotel with a large tract of vacant property now called Site 17 "ripe for development", sports and athletics have morphed into multi-million dollar powerhouse investments.
That didn't happen in a blink-of-the-eye on the playing field of economic development. Nor did it come from City Hall's so-called "vital industries of opportunity" H.E.A.T. [Healthcare, Education, Aerospace/Defense, Tourism and Technology] - there is no S for Sports in that industries line-up from the self-named "professional economic developers' who came up with the acronym HEAT that did not include sports.Sports = BIG BU$INE$$.accounting for a large chunk of revenues to city coffers and it's not "chump change". [see other posts on this site for details]

Readers may want some context for today's post about the renaming of a street [photo by Bill Mitchell featured in this report by Kim Contreras yesterday in Oakland Clubhouse.
It took place at the newly-remodeled last year Hohokam Park.
Originally constructed in 1997 as the new spring home of the Chicago Cubs, the city of Mesa contributed $17.5 million toward the new renovations, with the Oakland A’s chipping in another $9.4 million.


Mayor John Giles and reporter Kim Contreras

The A’s signed a 20-year contract with the city of Mesa with two five-year options that could extend to 2045. A portion of the funds also were used to renovate the nearby Fitch Park baseball complex, which will serve as the year-round home for the A’s minor league training and player development operations.
Your MesaZona blogger first noticed Oakland A's reporter Kim Contreras's articles about spring training here in Mesa last year.

Yesterday she's back in Mesa and so is big-time baseball. She recalls a reaction from last year: . . . "On February 2, 2015, while doing one of my photo updates of the new facilities, I took 100 photos, and didn’t really look at details until I got home. That’s when I read the sign: “Welcome to the Lew Wolff Training Complex. Public Parking on 6th Place.” Ugh. This needed to changed. I had to say something. . . "
I approached the mayor of Mesa, Arizona – John Giles. I had never met him before last spring. . . There was nothing in it for him to even entertain my idea of changing the name of the road to anything but what it was. But he listened anyway.
At one point he reminded me that the Cubs had the same address for all their years at Fitch. I asked him how many championships the Cubs won during that time. We briefly discussed name options, . . Bottom line, it was clear that the mayor thought this could work. He said it would. But I’ve worked with enough elected officials to know that I don’t write in ink. . .
. . .  About a month ago I heard from the mayor and he said I would soon receive an invitation to the renaming of 6th Place. That was the first contact I’d had with him since the end of spring training – 10 months ago.
This afternoon, Tuesday, February 16, 2016, the unveiling of “Athletics Way” took place at the north east corner of Center Street and – what use to be – 6th Place.

That's the reporter's story about the renaming of a street in Mesa. Here's the press release from the City of Mesa yesterday:

Mesa street rename to Athletics Way

Post Date:02/16/2016 2:49 PM

A sign unveiling was held today to honor the return of Spring Training.  Sixth Place that runs along the practice fields for the Oakland A’s was renamed to Athletics Way.

accompanied with an image of "the boys" from City Hall and A's owner Michael Crowley.

Here's a link to the whole media-play page from the City of Mesa Newsroom >> http://www.mesanow.org/article.php?id=1596